Amorphis Announce May Release for New LP ‘Queen of Time’

Amorphis have set May 18 as the release date for their upcoming album entitled Queen of Time. The Finnish melodic death metal outfit announced a co-headlining tour of North America with Dark Tranquility just last week, so it was only a matter of time before more information would come about their new LP, which will be number 13 for the band. The record was produced by Jens Bogren, who worked on their last effort, 2015's Under The Red Cloud.

"I guess Queen Of Time turned out as a massive surprise to all of us," says Amorphis guitarist Esa Holopainen. "During the rehearsing and pre-production, we didn't have any idea that Jens had this huge picture inside of his head about the landscape of the album. It's a very natural continuation to Under The Red Cloud but with steroids. The songs are more aggressive but there's more dynamics, harmonies and orchestral arrangements present. The result is Amorphis as something you've never heard before! Essentially, working with Jens worked really well. As a person, he is very similar to us - we share the same kind of weird humor and we all like to work hard."

The album art for Queen of Time, which can be viewed below, was created by French artist Jean-Emmanuel Simoulin, aka Valnoir Mortasonge, who also did the cover for Under The Red Cloud. This will be the first recording with founding bassist Olli-Pekka 'Oppu' Laine since the spring of 2000. He returned to the fold last year.

"To be honest, 'Oppu' was the only guy we could imagine being in Amorphis," Holopainen says. "It was funny - when we started to play our first shows together again last summer it all felt so familiar. He was involved with arranging songs and he also even brought some new songs to the table...really good ones, too!"

"Even though the last year with Amorphis has been exciting, nostalgic and fun, it's also been truly comfortable to be with the guys again," 'Oppu' says. "As a clichéd expression, it's been like returning home from a lengthy odyssey. After 18 years, it feels like we are picking up where we left off from the good ol' days! I'm really looking forward for the upcoming tour. The new album itself is a really strong package, the only hard thing will be picking which songs to play live! It’s safe to say we are set to pull off some killer shows over the next few years. After that, I'm predicting a long and fruitful career for the band in its current form..."

Joining the Amorphis and Dark Tranquility on the North American tour will be Portugal Gothic metal act Moonspell and Finnish melodic death metallers Omnium Gatherum. The full itinerary, with shows kicking off in early September, can be found here. Pre-orders for Queen of Time and the first single will be announced soon.

Queen of Time Album Art

Nuclear Blast

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